I spent the entire day helping cook the meals, and I woke up extra early to bake my pies. No one ended up eating the pumpkin pecan pie, and let me tell you, they TOTALLY missed out. Since then I’ve eaten more than half the pie, so delicious and sweet and satisfying it was.

The recipe for both is of course from Dorie Greenspan, it’s really the only source for my baked goods so far and I was not disappointed. This recipe also follow’s the week’s TWD post. I’ve never baked pie before and I went into my new favorite store Brooklyn Kitchen and received a pie baking 101 course from one of the super helpful employees. I bought some essential tools such as the dough bench and butter dough cutter/mixer thing and pie knife. With newly acquired information entow I baked the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie, a concoction of pumpkin and pecan, and All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie. I will admit the apple pie wasn’t as sweet and soft and juicy as I had hoped and I was suspicious of the recipe’s not having enough sugar or anything liquidy. As I am inexperienced with pie-eating in general, I can’t judge the crust in any form of universal criteria, but I think the crust was a bit too hard and not enough flaky and the top and bottom crust too doughy/bready. I was very anal about how quick I was in working the dough as little as possible and keeping the butter and water super cold and making sure to keep pea-sized chunks of butter in the dough, but I think I will need to practice some more to get it right. The hardest part was the crimping. I tried to pinch the edges so it gave a pretty ripple effect but it just didn’t stick. Plus the most annoying was the Pyrex pie pan I bought had handles which I thought would be convenient but it just got in the way of decorating the edge, giving doofy ears to what should have been a pretty crust. I did have alot of fun cutting the dough into pretty flower shapes, that I will admit came out beautifully.

The rest of my weekend has consisted of cleaning and preparing for my new ex-roommate and her boyfriend to move in. I made a trip to Ikea on Black Friday expecting the worst only to find it quite empty at 10:30 am. I got free diluted hot chocolate. Definitely wasn’t swiss chocolate, more instant nesquick powder mix concoction. I bought a new wardrobe, dining table, 2 stools, various kitchen tools and fabric. It was conveniently delivered to my house for a small fortune and I spent the day installing the wardrobe. Upon assemblage completion I was very very frustrated and super pissed the doors didn’t close all the way and didn’t line up to the frame, a frame that shook with a push of the finger. The screw insertion holes either didn’t line up or weren’t where they were supposed to be. So fucking typical. I’ve banned Ikea in the past and broke my own rule, because that’s what I do, and I deeply regret this purchase. Ikea will get a phone call from me tomorrow.

All the other items though weren’t so disappointing. I redecorated my kitchen with shelves, table and tablecloth and I can’t tell you how much more welcoming and inspiring my kitchen is now. I am very very happy and plan to spend even more time in there. In fact, I’m sitting at the table now gleaming and glowing.

In the news, there is some freaky shit going on in India, how does one government let a band of crazy gunmen infiltrate Taj Mahal palace and occupy it for days on end going off on a shooting rampage. Scary. I don’t know how I feel about Clinton and Gates to be in Obama’s staff, I’m in denial of my own hesitance with these decisions. A walmart employee in Long Island was trampled to death by the human stampede on Friday, it’s such a maddening story to read and confirms my belief that half the human population on this earth are unworthy to be deemed savages to say the least. More on news later, lets get cooking.

Recipes:

All American, All-Delicious Apple Pie

9 inch Double Crust, chilled (I used a recipe that was also in the book, but it’s too long to type, so you pick your own, there are many out there)

4 pounds (about 6 very large) apples

3/4 cup sugar

grated zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8-1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs (or dry bread crumbs)

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

For the Glaze (optional):

Milk or heavy cream

Decorating (coarse) granulated sugar

Getting Ready: Butter a 9 inch deep dish pie plate.

Working on a well-floured surface, roll out one piece of the dough to about 1/8″ thick. Fit dough into buttered pie plate and trim edges to 1/2″ overhang. Roll the other piece of dough and slip it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or silicone mat. Cover both and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.

Sprinkle crumbs into pie plate evenly, turn the apples and their juices into the crust, dot with bits of cold butter.

Moisten the rim of the bottom crust with water, then center the top crust over the apples. Either fold the overhang from teh top crust under the bottom and crimp or press the top crust again the bottom and trim the overhang. if you’ve pressed and trimmed, use the tines of a fork to press the two crusts together securely.

Cut 6 slits in the top crust, if you’d like brush the top with little milk or crean and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes. Lower oven to 375 degree and bake for another 50 to 60 minutes, or until crust is gorgeously browned and the juices bubble up through the top crust. After about 40 minutes in the oven, if the top crust looks as if it’s browning too quickly, cover pie loosely with foil.

For pumpkin filling: Put all ingredients into a food processor and pulse and process, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, for 2 minutes. Leave the filling in the processor for the moment.

For pecan filling: In a medium bowl, with a whisk, beat all of the ingredient except the pecans together until smooth

To Assemble: Give the pumpkin filling one quick pulse and pour into piecrust. Top evenly with nuts, then pour pecan filling mixture. Poke down any pecans that float to the top and aren’t covered with filling.

Bake the pie for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven to 300 degrees and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until it is evenly puffed and a think knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pie to cooling rack and let stand until warm.

Like this:

A while back I saw what is definitely one of the best shows this year (which isn’t saying much since I haven’t really seen too many shows this year) at Andreas Grimm in Chelsea. It was titled Disentangle and all the works in some form or another focused on hair. Hair. HAIR! It was quite a hysteircal, jarring and odd show with drawings, sculptures, video, and painting.

The collaborative video with AA Bronson and Nayland Blake titled Coat was definitely the star of the show. I’ve seen this somewhere before, I want to say Brooklyn Museum, or maybe an art fair. Its 3 videos, with each panel focused on one participating artist’s face being smudged in vanilla cream while the other is defaced in chocolate cream, in a third channel the two are disturbingly, face cringingly, making out. Their facial expressions are minimal and serious. It’s borderline vulgar but rings true in political satire, unless I misinterpret.

Other works are images of a girl from the 50’s advertising the wonderous function of hairspray,

a series of drawings illustrating ape-ish invasino of facial and body hair in would should be regal bust images,

and the infamous Vito Acconci eating, what else, but hair. This show made me very happy.

Like this:

Last Thursday I attended the opening of artist Keltie Ferris at Sunday gallery in the lower east side. I was lucky to meet her and her work last year through a previous gallery stint and am was very excited to experience this new body of work.

Keltie seems to take on a multi-layered approach to creating form and content, with a process that involves merging oil, acrylic and spray paint onto a single canvas formulating nearly abstracted mask figures that are barely representative. Her colors are jarring with silver and metallic foiled hues atop and under luster yellows, neon blues, crimson reds and sheer violets. Her strokes are never even or repetitive and includes a variety from dots, to lashes, scratches, peels, cuts, tears, both long and short. This multifariousness can be disorienting at first until you take a step back and, wait a second, is that face I see? Why yes! There are the eyes, the nose and a toothless grin! It’s a crude silly doofy mask created as a result of this spontaneous combustive process of layering and mark making and its this explosive conclusion that makes Keltie’s work mesmerizing and addictive.

Ragnarok, 2008, oil, acrylic, spraypaint on canvas, 80×100″

Ragnarok, shown above was the highlight of the show, which consisted of 5 of these large expressive organic yet deceivingly calculated images. The marks are not as gestural as the others but there is a uniformity in the way the yellow dots form a constellation pattern, or perhaps a topographical view of a city lit by a constellation of lights, the black resembling roads cutting systems for a silver sliver of buildings. There’s also something very animated and video-game-y about them, like you would see this as a setting for urban pacman. If you look close you will see folded layers and cuts made from these layers of paint and this abrasive texture adds an exploratory element, as if the artist kept adding without deducting layer upon layer of color and stroke. It adds density and silence to a highly populated color scheme. These paintings were pretty mind boggling and I can’t wait to see more.

If you’re in Miami (I find all these people are going only AFTER deciding not to go, fooey), Keltie will have a booth to herself with Sunday at NADA the first week of December. Enjoy the beach, enjoy the masked beauty, enjoy the perverts (I definitely won’t be missing that).

Like this:

I spent the majority of the weekend preparing for Thanksgiving and catching a cold. I was satisfyingly productive with the first task and begrudginly annoyed and anxious about the latter. The idea of nasal and chest congestion induces uneasy nerves, especially when there is rain and clouds looming over, further suffocating and thinning my oxygen intake. Yes, I have problems.

After more than a few indecisive moments I decided to go to my family in Queens for Thanksgiving. I will be bringing this as a side and baking both apple pie and pumpkin pecan pie from Dorie Greenspan‘s ever helpful book. I would have loved to host a dinner but it was intimidating as I’ve never done it before and my Thanksgivings usually consisted of chicken, rice cake wrapped in bacon, fried cornballs and steamed cabbage leaves (not complaining, just proving inexperience). Plus my brain is unfocused and frazzled by oncoming transition as an old roommate becomes new and some house design is in need of attention. But rest assured I am already planning for grand concourse dinner for next year.

Last night I made sweet potato and leek soup following a Joy of Cooking recipe and it was quite delicious. Tonight I made chicken pumpkin goulash and I must say, I still don’t know what goulash is, until now when Wiki informs me it originates from Hungary and is a stew/soup usually containing beef, onions, veggies, spice and paprika. Goulash means herdsman. I followed a recipe from this blog and used chicken rather than lamb or beef. I think this might have been a mistake as it was a bit bland and I’m sure another meat would have provided the flavor and sauce that chicken lacks. Also that deep orange red color/spice was not there which was what I was looking for, so I’m a bit disappointed. Nonetheless with the right amount of salt it was a good make-me-forget-I’m-sick meal.

I also made sweet & spicy pumpkin seeds following a simple recipe here. This was also the first time using/preparing/eating pumpkin and the chewy zangy texture and consistency was delightful. I’ve concluded I’m a squash junky (butternut, acorn, pumpkin, zucchini, summer, winter, you name it). Not to mention all the funky looking ones make great models for still life drawing. Especially the ones shaped like phallus.

Like this:

At a recent gallery hop through the Lower East Side I fell upon the paintings of Logan Grider at Thierry Goldberg Projects. I was attracted by the color and size of the paintings, small and manageable, playful with a tinge of conservative. There are references to modernist abstraction but with an energetic rambunctiousness that is crisp and new.

stuck, 2008, oil on canvas over panel, 10 x 12

There were about 15 or so paintings in the show each measuring about 15 x 20 inches. I recognized a pattern of 2 tone backgrounds, face profile shapes and a tumble of jagged and smooth lines and forms spilling out of a vacuous plane. Each one is unevenly bordered by a darker shade and within this barrier a play on opaque and subdued colors take shape in what seems to be a layered process of folding and unfolding. The titles seem arbitrary and limits the scope of open interpretation. I found myself looking for a couple in “marriage”, acts of debauchery in “hubris”, war in “courage”. Through these titles Grider appropriates sentiments and the human condition onto the canvas and its valid to say they are an abstract representation for abstract feelings and acts but I felt it was too forceful and kept me honed down to a specific agenda.

Hubris, 2008, oil on canvas over panel, 20x22

Still I found each painting enjoyable in midst of consumption, I was drawn to each shape and shade, layers of crude origami folds with solids and stripes, light and shadows cast on a non existent dimension. It was simultaneously free and calculated and I think this duality, back and forth ambivalence is what I find so attractive, and perhaps its a new kind of cubism, an alternative perspective of real life, silly and confessional.